Help realizing i'm catastrophizing and how to mitigate that

[last.hummingbird]

Something I've become self aware of a little too late regarding my mental health is that I will sometimes blow problems way out of proportion to what they actually may be and tend to project my negative perception of myself onto people's opinions of me. Growing up I learned to be the person that didn't want to get in anyone's way and part of that sort of meant I often neglected to properly express and/or stand up for myself. A lot of the time, my negative assumptions turn out to be false. It's just been sort of difficult to manage and be self-aware of when I am in catastrophe mode. If I'm in a situation where depression is triggered it ends up not just making normal activities difficult, but my brain also goes to the worst possible outcome in almost every situation. I remembered today there are things in my life I can still be happy about even though things are feeling like they're going wrong or like I'm doing everything wrong, and I had a pretty okay day.

Looking back on my life, especially when I was a teen makes me realize I could be in a very different place if I hadn't been so deep in that frame of mind at such a critical time. With the way my circumstances were, I don't think I could have helped it without receiving critical support. But I also think I sort of blinded myself to my own potential, and in many ways, out of habit, I still do that. Like don't get me wrong, I think some problems I am dealing with may be very difficult to fix, or else I wouldn't be here typing this, but I'm trying to figure out strategies to deal with this.

 

[timf]

Sometimes we amplify things because it can make us feel heroic when we have to face them. Sometimes it can be the result of something like nutritional deficiencies such as Omega 3. Even sleep deficiencies can have an effect. That you recognize the problem is a huge step forward as you are in a position to research and conduct experiments to see what may help bring things more under control.